Document 7OE7bn47L6MGZXRRyZMDpJg0E

FILE NAME: Friction Materials Standards Institute (FMS) DATE: 1948 Sept 23 DOC#: FMS082 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article - Court Dissolves Trade Association COURT DISSOLVES TRADE ASSOCIATION New York Times {1857-Current file); Sep 23. 1948; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2004) pg. 20 COURT DISSOLVES TRADE ASSOCIATION Brake Lining Unit, 17 Members an d 9 Individuals Fined in A nti-Trust Action The B rake L ining M anufactur ers A ssociation, Inc., w as dissolved and w ith seventeen of its corpo ra te m em bers and nine officials of the concerns w as fined a to tal of $152,000 th ro u g h an o rd er signed by Federal Judge Edw ard A. Con g e r yesterday. This follow ed the defendants' pleas of nolo conten dere to three indictm ents charging violation of the a n ti-tru st laws. The indictm ents, which w ere re tu rn ed by a F ed eral g ran d ju ry in A ugust, 1947, w ere dism issed e a r lier as to the F irestone Tire and Rubber Company and the Fire stone Tireand Rubber E xport Com pany, both, of A kron, Ohio, and a num ber of other individuals. The defendants were charged w ith entering three separate con spiracies to fix prices, discounts, classifications of custom ers and term s and conditions of sale on replacem ent brake linings and clutch facings. W ith the fines ranging from $1,000 to $15,000, th e h eav iest levies, $15,000 each, w ere im posed on the association, the Am erican B rake Shoe Com pany of D etroit, the Grizzly M anufacturing Com pany of Bell, Calif., R aybestosM anhattan, Inc. of Passaic, N. J., and the Therm oid Com pany of Trenton, N. J. A sserting th a t the case involved 96 p er cen t of th e ind u stry , A t torney General Tom C lark said t h a t J u d g e C o n g e r's ju d g m e n t should benefit all ow ners of auto m obiles and trucks and the users of industrial equipm ent requiring brake linings and clutch facings. H e also declared th a t th e "high price" of brake lining m aterials should now be reduced. 5 L ester D. Stickles, attorney for the trade association, said th a t tria l of the case would have in volved calling hundreds of w it nesses and presenting truckloads of evidence. He declared th a t the in d u stry could not afford to spare tbp m anagem ent for a long period %t a tim e w hen it w a s tr y in g to a tc h u p w ith th e c o u n try 's p ro duction needs. 1 A sserting th a t the violations charged were based on procedures established a t the insistence of the N ational Recovery A dm inistration, M r. Stickles said th a t these pro cedures had resulted in stan d ardization of sizes and in other uniform ities th a t had benefited the industry and brought substantial savings to the public. F or this reason, he added, the practices had been openly adopted and followed as accepted custom s of the trade w ith no effort being m ade by m em bers of the associa tion to conceal them . Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.